Forward
by Altum
Summary: Four years after Cocoon's fall, she is left with more questions than answers. As the gods count down and old nightmares resurface, Lightning will sacrifice anything for the future.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Final Fantasy XIII_. No profit is being made with this work. Just practicing, and having some fun while I'm at it.

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_**Forward**_

_a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII_

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_**Prologue**

Two miles from the ground, Cocoon's survivors were negligible at best.

The breeze nipped at Lightning's neck. She watched the sun nestle into a Pulsian horizon, somewhere beyond the green of the Archylte Steppe and Titan's home in the Faultwarrens. Reds, violets, and pinks fought a losing battle against the cool approach of night. It had been four years since Fang and Vanille gave their lives for hers, and it was only the second time she allowed herself to appreciate Gran Pulse's natural beauty.

Lightning closed her eyes and breathed it all in. She let her legs dangle freely over the cliff face and listened to the song of a baying herd of adamantoises. She traced the edge of the crystal pillar with her finger and half-smiled.

For this instant, this single moment frozen in time, everything felt _okay_.

"This was what you gave us," she said. A pang of guilt. She reached to her chest, where her brand had been. "I realized it too late."

Oddly, it wasn't Snow or Serah, with their, frankly, ignorant sense of optimism that tried to teach her this lesson. It wasn't Sazh and one of his spouts of wisdom.

It was Hope.

Hope, the boy that above all seemed helpless, understood what Vanille and Fang gave everyone.

"They didn't save our lives," he had said. "They gave us a second chance. We can't make the same mistakes."

He was right.

Snow and Serah married each other not long after Cocoon was fully evacuated. Sazh did all he could to raise Dajh properly. Hope rekindled a lost relationship with his father.

Lightning, damn it, tried. She _tried_. Tried not to make the same mistakes she did before. Despite her best attempts to start over with her sister, Serah and Snow's marriage took priority. Sazh worked with Bartholomew to push the survivors in the right direction. She watched over Hope for a few months as they did, but as a semblance of civilization emerged, he wanted to make a difference and returned to his studies.

Everyone had their own directions, their own futures. Everyone except for Lightning. Without a direction, without a goal, she was lost.

Bartholomew gave her a chance, and she took it. As figurehead of the democratic movement that sprung up after Orphan's demise, he led an effort to build a new beginning. Genesis was built around Fang and Vanille's crystal coffin, which held Cocoon thousands of feet in the air, a monument to the friends they lost and the freedom they won.

Amodar offered Lightning a spot as lieutenant of the Genesis Guardian Corps. Reluctantly, she accepted. With everyone going their separate ways, she needed _something_.

The Corps became her focus once again, and the battle became her life. By day, she pretended to protect the legacy of her friends. By night, she lied awake and stared blankly at an unfamiliar ceiling, wondering how she screwed it all up a second time.

For the better part of four years, she was alone. Just like before.

Old habits die hard.

She rubbed the hardening skin where her brand used to be.

"I realized it too late."

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_**A/N:**_ Wasn't sure what to name this. I don't really know where I want to take this story or where it will end up. All I know is that it's going to go _somewhere_, that it's going to progress. It was a last minute fit. I think it aptly describes the general direction I want to take the story, as well.

The original prologue was a lot different, but I opted out on it. It was a lot longer and focused on Hope and Sazh. However, this is Lightning's story, so I decided to try and write something else, and, well, this came out instead.

Other quick notes. Actual chapters will be longer. There may or may not be a romance (likely not). It's going to be more action-oriented, with emphasis on Lightning.


End file.
